“Do you have a website?” We used to dread hearing that question. Now we can proudly say, “MPIRG.ORG”.

In March, MPIRG was selected to participate in The Nerdery’s Overnight Website Challenge, a 24-hour event where teams of web professionals dedicate their time to help selected non-profits design a FREE website. We stayed up all night, drank copious amounts of Redbull and worked with our team create what you see today on MPIRG.ORG.

We definitely needed the help.

Our old website was out of date, unappealing and unintuitive. It did not do justice to what MPIRG accomplished or show the rich history of students and the community working together to make our state a better place to live. Since 1971, we have influenced incredible change through the power of community organization, but you would never know it by looking at our old website.

That’s changed. Now, with the Our Story page you can see the many victories your support has fueled. Together we have achieved so much, with our new website we are going to make sure everyone hears about it.

As a student-directed nonprofit, we are propelled by youthful energy and we now have an online portal for young activists to show what they have accomplished.

The new MPIRG.ORG lets us more effectively organize and empower the community behind the issues on which we work. We will more easily spread important news, rally public support and engage with you to make Minnesota a better place. Simply put, we will be doing more and doing it more efficiently.

We know having face-to-face conversations will always be the best way to inspire individuals, but now we also have the ability to speak with one voice. We now have a tool to engage the public on their time.

You can keep up with us whenever, from wherever. At MPIRG we are constantly working to take action on behalf of the community, with our new website you can better see how hard we work, how much we do with your support and the many ways you can become involved.

When someone asks, “Do you have a website?” we will be proud to show them. With the new MPIRG.ORG we have another powerful way for people to connect and join us in our mission. It lets us confidently show what we have accomplished and what we’ll continue to do together. Empowering the community has been our strength since 1971, with this tool we can continue that tradition online.

But we didn’t do this alone. On the contrary, we owe many people our thanks.

First, thank you helping us get selected for the Overnight Website Challenge. You wrote fantastic, heartfelt testimonials and shared your support on Facebook and Twitter. Without your help we couldn’t write this.

Also, we must thank The Nerdery for organizing the Overnight Website Challenge. It’s an amazing opportunity for non-profits to better accomplish their goals and MPIRG is thankful for that chance.

Finally, we’d like to thank our team of web professionals, The Beachcombers. Your hard work and dedication throughout this process was inspiring. Our new site will change how MPIRG organizes and we are incredibly grateful for the creativity, tirelessness and care you displayed during and after the Overnight Website Challenge. Thank you!